25 Things To Do In Dallas This Week: December 17 – December 20.

Go High With Michelle Obama, Hit One of Many Toy Drives, Catch It’s a Wonderful Life on a Big Screen, Sip and Shop Small or Catch a Cody Jinks Solo Show.

Studies – and by studies, we mean extremely informal polls – show that people suffering from sugary snack fatigue during the holidays prefer to receive fresh homemade baked bread as gifts. And because our wallet’s busted, and bread’s way cheaper than real gifts, we choose to believe it.

Allow us to convince you over to our way of thinking. With all that saved scratch from not buying gifts, you’ll have a little extra going out money in your pocket.

Monday

An Intimate Conversation With Michelle Obama at American Airlines Center
The First Lady Forever In Our Hearts, hits the Dallas arena on her Becoming book tour, reflecting on “the experiences and events, both public and private, that have shaped her, from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her years spent at the most famous address in the world.” — CG

Nathan Kalish & the Last Caller, Joshua Ray Walker at Lola’s (Free)
The Nashville, TN singer-songwriter spent all of 2017 working on his newest album and touring all around the country. He and The Lastcallers are going to spend all of 2018 touring in support of the album, a project that is the culmination of Kalish’s past eight years on the road. The album’s theme touches on social commentary, dark humor and even some sciwnce fiction ideas. — Obed Manuel

Tuesday

Chicago at Winspear Opera House
For this run of the Broadway favorite, it’ll be former Dallas Cowboys running back Eddie George razzle dazzling ‘em as tap dancing lawyer Billy Flynn. And all that jazz. — CG

Wednesday

Laugh Your MASS Off w/ Arielle Isaac Norman at Main At South Side
Norman, one of Austin’s funniest people and host of the Gender Fluids podcast headlines this recurring bar-set comedy show. Local comics Scott Crisp, Lawrence Rosales and Ralph Barbosa also appear and, as always, Brian Breckenridge hosts. It’s theoretically free, but cash donations for the talent are always appreciated. — CG

The Faceless at Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill
The technical metal band celebrates the 10-year anniversary of its Planetary Duality Album. Rings of Saturn, The Last Ten Seconds of Life, Vale Of Pnath, Interloper and The Human Experiment perform this stuffed bill. — CG

Temporex at Dada
The traditional gatekeepers of the music industry have no idea about Joseph Flores’s project Temporex, but the song “Nice Boys” alone has over 7 million streams on Spotify and counting. The 19-year-old songwriter has been praised by none other than Tyler, the Creator himself, and is involved in the same dream pop/surf rock circuit as Bane’s World, Homeshake and Boy Pablo. Temporex is in a thriving musical subculture few people outside of niche internet circles have any idea about, so come to this show if you want to take a gander into the future of indie music. — Garrett Gravley

Daikaiju Attacks! Three Links
Houston-based, kaiju-themed surf band prefers the “attacks” terminology over simply saying they’re playing at the venue. It’s fitting, too, because literally every single time they’ve played here they’ve set some part of the venue on fire. — CG

Deep Ellum Wine Walk at Discover Deep Ellum
An extra incentive to shop small while gathering gifts – free pours of wine at all participating neighborhood shops – once you pay for this month’s collector glass, that is. — CG